Michigan gets $3.4 million to battle opioid abuse

Michigan health centers are getting $3.4 million from the federal government to fight the ongoing opioid epidemic.

It’s part of a new federal push to get more people into treatment.

"All across rural and urban American, the opioid epidemic is one of the most pressing public health issues we face," says Kathleend Falk, regional director of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Humans Services. "We lose far too many of our fellow Americans to drug overdoses.”

Falk says in the six Great Lake states alone, more than 8,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2014.

In Michigan, the grants are going mostly to clinics in the Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids areas.

They’ll be able to screen more patients, train opioid prescribers, and deliver more medication-assisted treatment, or MAT.

Michigan has a growing problem with what's called "uncoordinated prescription opioid use," and it's putting hundreds of patients at risk.

“In Michigan we went from 81 deaths in 1999 to 519 deaths in 2013 from opioids,” said Marianne Udow-Phillips from the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation.

A new report from CHRT finds that most opioids are used and prescribed appropriately, but a small number of patients receive numerous prescriptions from separate prescribers within a short period of time.

A new study out of Michigan State University found that, among adolescents, 14- and 15-year-olds are particularly vulnerable to opioid addiction.

Looking at a national sample of 42,000 respondents, the study found that 14- and 15-year-olds are two to three times more likely than 20- and 21-year olds to become dependent on prescription painkillers.

A horrific video showing a naked man slowly dying in a Macomb County jail cell is sparking local and national outrage.

The death of David Stojcevski brings into sharp focus the overlap between some issues that have drawn intense scrutiny recently: deaths of people in police custody, people being jailed for minor offenses because they can’t afford to pay fines, and the opioid addiction crisis.

Drug overdose deaths rose 14% between 2013 and 2014, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

MDHHS Public Information Officer Jennifer Eisner says a state task force is looking at ways to prevent the problem, as well as increase access to treatment.

"We are looking at ways to reduce doctor shopping and pharmacy shopping," says Eisner, "as well as how to expand access to access to Naloxone (a drug used to treat addicts), increasing access to care and increasing the number of addiction specialists that there are in the state."